Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Tuesday, March 13, 2012

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Tuesday's market moving announcements are largely concentrated in Europe and the U.S. Major releases include CPI data across Europe, German economic sentiment and retail sales out of the U.S.

Here's what you need to know.

Australia kicks off things at 8:30 p.m. ET on Monday with a reading of February home loans. Economists expect home loans to decline 0.6 percent from the previous month.

Attention then shifts to Europe which sees a slew of economic data, starting with France which releases CPI (EU harmonized) for February at 2:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect a 0.5 percent month-over-month rise in CPI and a 2.6 percent year-over-year rise in CPI.

Italian CPI data for February is out next at 5:00 a.m. ET with analysts expecting a 0.4 percent MoM increase and 3.3 percent YoY increase in consumer prices.

The ZEW economic sentiment survey for Germany and the Eurozone will be released at 6:00 a.m. ET. Economists expect German economic sentiment to rise to 41.5 for the month of March.

The attention shifts to North America, with U.S. retail sales for February announced before the opening bell. Economists expect retail sales to rise 1.2 percent month-over-month when the data is released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Ex-autos and gas retail sales are expected to rise 0.6 percent month-over-month.

This is followed by business inventories for January that will be out at 10 a.m. ET. Consensus is for a 0.5 percent month-over-month rise in inventories. Investors watch inventories because they act as an important indicator of the near-term production activity.

Closing out the day at 2:15 p.m. ET is the FOMC meeting announcement. Federal funds rate is expected to stay unchanged at 0 - 0.25 percent.

There are no major earnings announcements for the day. Consensus estimate provided by Bloomberg.